Today in Manhunting History -- September 6, 2003: The Arrest of Nasir al-Muslit

In the late summer and fall of 2003, the specter of the missing Saddam Hussein continued to have a damaging effect on Iraqi morale and reconstruction. From hiding, Saddam had issued at least five audio recordings calling upon Iraqis to attack Coalition forces. At the same time, the level of violence in Iraq rose dramatically. Nearly one soldier per day was being killed by hostile action, and in August alone car bombs had destroyed the Jordanian embassy and UN Headquarters in Baghdad, and killed more than 200 Shi’a worshippers at the sacred Imam Ali mosque in Najaf. General Sanchez deemed killing the fugitive Iraqi leader to be critical, as it would “relieve the people of Iraq of the fear of his return.”

Meanwhile, in one of Saddam’s ornate palaces along the Tigris in Tikrit, Task Force 20’s intelligence analysts were conducting social network analysis of top- and mid-level Ba’athist activists functional and tribal ties to the fugitive tyrant. (The 4th Infantry Division was independently conducting a similar analysis). When interrogation specialist, Staff Sergeant Eric Maddox joined the secretive unit in July, an interpreter showed him a list of all the former bodyguards who lived in the area, as well as their kin. On September 6, the Iraqi police arrested a former bodyguard named Nasir Yasim Omar al-Muslit, one of 40 al-Muslits on Maddox’s list. Under questioning, Nasir eventually provided Maddox with the blueprint to the operation of Saddam’s bodyguards. Whereas Maddox had been working off a list of 200 bodyguards of uncertain importance, Nasir gave him the key to the inner circle of 32 Hamaya, the individuals most trusted by Saddam.

SSG Eric Maddox